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It’s been a pretty tough year for fans of the Blue Bomber. Despite the immense popularity of the Mega Man franchise (which boasts well over a hundred games since its introduction in 1987), Capcom canceled two games (the only ones in development as far as I’m aware) and left Mega Man off the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster which is analogous to Nintendo releasing a new Super Smash Bros. without Mario.

So, what’s the deal? Some have suggested Capcom is hating on Mega Man to get back at co-creator Keiji Inafune who left the company late last year after making a few eyebrow-raising public comments about Capcom and the Japanese game industry.

Is that true? Well, let’s look at the timeline.

TIMELINE

July 16, 2010 – Capcom announces Mega Man Universe

Sep. 16 - 19, 2010 – Tokyo Game Show:

-Mega Man Universe is playable

-Inafune tells the press: “I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind... Capcom is barely keeping up.”

Sep. 28, 2010 - Capcom announces Mega Man Legends 3. Inafune: "We have wanted to create a new installment in this series for a number of years, and it is great that we now have the opportunity to bring this title to the Nintendo 3DS."

Oct. 29, 2010 – Inafune announces he’s leaving Capcom

Feb. 15, 2011 – Marvel vs. Capcom 3 releases. Mega Man is not on the roster. He’s not one of the upcoming DLC characters either.

March 31, 2011 – Capcom cancels Mega Man Universe

April 21, 2011 – Capcom announces Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version, essentially a demo of the game, will launch with the 3DS eShop in early June.

May 9, 2011 – Inafune reveals he deliberately went way over budget on the prototypes for Dead Rising and Lost Planet in order to force Capcom’s hand in green-lighting their development.

May 20, 2011 – Capcom delays Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version

July 18, 2011 – Capcom cancels Mega Man Legends 3 (Prototype Version will not be released)

July 20, 2011 – Capcom announces Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Mega Man is not among the 12 new characters.

Well now. It does kinda look like Capcom’s a bit miffed with Mr. Inafune and is taking it out poor little Mega Man, doesn’t it? Heck, if you want to add a bit more fuel to the fire, Mega Man 9 released Sept. 22nd, 2008. 17 months later, Mega Man 10 came out. 17 months after that would be about now and we haven’t heard anything about a Mega Man 11 (or the oft-requested Mega Man X9). Hmm…

But, I titled this post the way I did for a reason so let’s examine all three games in turn and see what else might be going on here.

MEGA MAN UNIVERSE

If this was the only Mega disappointment of the year (har har), I doubt many would have thought much of it. Sure, canceling a game that late in its development is rare but it does happen and even Mega Man has had a game canceled before* so it’s not like it’s completely unprecedented. Probably the oddest thing about this title getting the axe was how far along it seemed to be. It was canceled a full six months after it was playable at the Tokyo Game Show. That means Capcom probably invested quite a bit of dough into the project by the time it pulled the plug and as we’d seen with Dead Rising and Lost Planet, Capcom seems loath to can a project it’s already dumped a lot of money into.

So why was it canceled?

Well, it certainly had a polarizing aesthetic but if that was the issue, a delay would have been expected, not a full cancellation. Was the game just not working? Was it floundering without Mr. Inafune’s direction? That seems unlikely too as there are a lot of talented people at Capcom who could have conceivably taken the reins. Plus, from a gameplay standpoint, according to the previews I’ve read, it seemed to play just fine. As far as I know, the create-your-own-level functionality wasn’t demoed so maybe that crucial aspect of the game’s design wasn’t working. Doubtful, but who knows?

Well, in light of a better explanation, maybe Capcom did cancel the game just to extend a middle finger in Inafune’s direction. Or, it’s possible that Capcom was concerned about somehow tarnishing its brand or being shown up by user-designed levels. Stupid, but plausible.

Isn’t speculation fun? Moving on...

MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3

Why the heck is Mega Man not in this game? Here’s what producer Ryota Niitsuma said:

“There was a Mega Man slot for this game - we had room for a character from that series. But when it came to the propriety of that character being in a fighting game, Mega Man has some problems.

If we were to adapt the original Mega Man character into a fighting game he would have to have a lot more extra moves and abilities, and that would then create a different Mega Man entirely. You couldn’t retain his original character as he is. So we looked into other Mega Mans, and decided that Zero had the best list of moves already in existence when it comes to fitting into a fighting game.”

That strikes me as legitimately disingenuous when you consider that Mega Man was a playable fighter in both Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. To be fair, that’s a translated quote so it’s possible something was lost and Mr. Niitsuma meant something along the lines of: “I don’t think the way Mega Man was presented in the first two games was true to the character.” That could be a solid reason for the character’s exclusion. If that’s what he meant, anyway.

Regardless, it’s not like the Mega Man franchise is not well represented in the game. Zero from the Mega Man X series is a playable fighter and so is Mega Man Legends antagonist Tron Bonne. There’s a Mega Man Legends-themed level and several cameo appearances from Legends characters. Even Volnutt (Legends’ Mega Man) shows up in Tron Bonne’s ending cinematic.

Also (and here’s where I cheated a bit in my video with that “half brothers and sisters” bit), Mega Man wasn’t the only franchise Mr. Inafune worked on. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 features many characters from games he was involved with such as Crimson Viper from Street Fighter 4 and Nathan Spencer from Bionic Commando. The upcoming Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will feature Frank West from Dead Rising (one of the games Inafune “tricked” Capcom into funding) and Phoenix Wright from... uh, Phoenix Wright.

And here’s another fun fact. According to Mr. Inafune himself: "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom. My mentor [at Capcom], who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him.”

You know which character Mr. Inafune did design? Zero. And he’s a playable fighter so if Capcom is trying to get one over on Inafune, removing a character he didn’t design and including one he did doesn’t seem to be the best way to go about it.

MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3

Let me start with something Mr. Inafune said at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show:

"I really have a lot of memories with all the Mega Man titles and it's difficult to just pick one of them as my favorite. But if I were to do so, it would be the game that I'd consider to be like a clumsy son. It's Mega Man Legends, a title that really didn't sell well in the Mega Man franchise. It didn't sell anywhere as well as I had anticipated. I was really confident about the game during its development, considering how fun the game was. It was really something new, something that we thought would be unfortunate if gamers didn't play. And we released it, and oops!"

I think the most likely and frankly, obvious explanation for this game’s cancellation is Capcom didn’t feel it would sell enough to justify the cost of continued development. Here’s a few facts working against the game:

-The main person championing the game is no longer with the company

-There hasn’t been a new entry in the franchise in over 10 years

-The games didn’t sell that well in the first place

None of the Mega Man Legends games were million sellers. In fact, the combined worldwide units sold for all games in the series (Legends, Legends 2, and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne) on all platforms (yes, I’m including Mega Man 64 and the PSP re-releases) don’t appear to be much higher than 500k.

It a damn shame this game will probably never see the light of day. It really is. The games never sold that well but they do have a passionate following and most of the reviews for the old games suggest they’re pretty darn good. That said, I find this game’s fate the least surprising of the three by far.

Well, that’s a bit of a bummer ending, isn’t it? Let’s conclude with something a bit more positive. Capcom’s Corporate Officer and Senior Vice-President Christian Svensson said at this year’s Comic Con:

“Mega Man is a very important brand to Capcom. We get questions [like] ‘Are you guys trying to kill the brand?’ No, absolutely not. It will continue to be a very important brand for us. I wish I had something I could hold and display for you that that’s the case, but I don’t right now. But super, super important to us; I do want to express that.”

It’s a small thing but Svensson later confirmed on August 8th the existence of Mega Man Dual Pack, a budget bundle of Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for the PSP to be released on September 5th (according to GameStop). Plus, that same week, Capcom had a Mega Man sale on the PSN with many games 50% off.

So, is Capcom getting back at Mr. Inafune through Mega Man? It’s certainly a fun conspiracy theory to entertain but no, I don’t so. That would be absurdly childish and petty and from a business standpoint, phenomenally stupid. You don’t stop milking your cash cow just because you’re upset with the ex-farmhand who raised her.

Andrew Eisen *Mega Man Mania, a Game Boy Advance compilation of the five original Game Boy Mega Man games.